


got my heartbeat skipping

by SuburbanSun



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Flirting, Ice Cream, M/M, Post-1x01, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24007777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuburbanSun/pseuds/SuburbanSun
Summary: Still new in town, a few things become clear to TK on a beautiful afternoon off: ice cream is cold; Texas is hot; Officer Reyes is hotter.Lone Star Week Day 2:Great Dynamics
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 14
Kudos: 157
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	got my heartbeat skipping

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Lone Star Week Day 2: Great Dynamics. What dynamic is greater than a little Tarlos flirting? Takes place between 1x01 and 1x02. Title from 'I Think He Knows' by Taylor Swift, which is a total vibe.

If TK had learned one thing about Texas, it was that it was fucking _hot_.

It wasn’t as if it never got warm in New York; he’d spent his fair share of time in muggy subway cars or sweating in Bryant Park.

But the dry, heavy Austin heat was something else entirely, and TK wasn’t sure he had the right attire for it. Which is why he was browsing the outdoor racks at an open-air mall around the corner from his and Owen’s new home, looking for lightweight knit and breathable cotton. 

He stepped inside a store to buy a couple of short-sleeve buttondowns, and when he walked out of the brisk AC and into a heat that swallowed him whole, he almost ran headfirst into a familiar face. 

“Hey!” Officer Reyes said, cocking his head to the side in surprise. “I know you.” 

TK smirked and tilted back on his heels. “That you do.” It had only been two days since they’d seen each other, since they’d danced together at the bar, since they’d snuck off to the back hallway for a quick makeout session that had left TK feeling almost as warm as he did under the hot Austin sun. He’d felt conflicted when they’d been interrupted by a _‘where’d you go?’_ text from Carlos’ friend Michelle; the kissing had been hot, but TK knew he really needed to avoid getting involved with anybody right now.

A little flirting never hurt anyone, though, did it?

“Did you bring _any_ clothes with you from New York, or….?” Carlos asked, eyeing the bags in TK’s hands. 

TK looked down, laughing. “Look, I’ve got a lot more closet space to fill down here. Actually, my closet here is about the size of my apartment back home.” 

Carlos raised his eyebrows, amused. “Guess you’ve got a lot of shopping to do, then.”

“That’s the plan,” TK said. He noted Carlos’ uniform, trying to resist dragging his gaze up and down his body. “You’re on duty?”

“It’s a slow day, and some of the shops here requested extra patrols after a break-in last month.” Carlos shrugged, squinting up at the clear, blue sky. “There are worse ways to spend a shift.”

TK nodded. He knew the appeal of a boring shift all too well. “Seems like things stay pretty calm around a town like this.”

Carlos chuckled. “Let’s hope. You wanna…?” He gestured toward an ice cream truck parked along one of the mall’s streets. 

“Ice cream?”

“What, people don’t eat ice cream in New York?” Carlos’s expression was curious, ‘til he nodded his head in realization. “Ah. Let me guess. Only the soy-vegan-gluten free kind?” 

TK laughed. “That’s my dad. He always bought into that stuff, the fancy diets and supplements and shakes. I eat healthy, but not like him.” 

“So…?” Carlos asked. 

A little ice cream never hurt anyone, either. “Let’s do it.” He gathered up his shopping bags and followed Carlos to the truck. He really did try to eat healthy as often as possible, but who was he to resist the call of an ice cream sandwich on a hot day? 

Carlos ordered a Bomb Pop, its red tip already sweating when he pulled the paper wrapper off and tossed it in the trash, handing TK the ice cream sandwich he’d insisted on paying for. They meandered slowly down the sidewalk with their treats.

“So, lesson number one in Texas— find ways to stay cool,” Carlos said, as they found an empty bench to sit on. TK settled on the slatted metal, one elbow resting on the back of it between them. When he looked up at Carlos, he first noticed the way his eyes had drifted shut, how his lashes splayed along his cheekbones, and then— then his lips, pink and wet and stretched around the tip of his popsicle in the prettiest way, in a way that made heat bloom throughout TK’s body that had nothing to do with the beating sun.

Now, that just wasn’t fair.

TK cleared this throat, taking a big bite of his ice cream sandwich and waiting until he’d swallowed before speaking again. “Oh, yeah? So, is taking a break for ice cream every day the trick?” 

Carlos laughed. “Sometimes. And sometimes the trick is patrolling the shadiest neighborhoods during the hottest part of the afternoon and turning up the AC in your cruiser up to full blast. Guess you can’t do that with the firetruck, huh?”

“Heat’s kind of our thing,” TK said with a smirk. He licked a stripe up the middle of his ice cream sandwich and tracked Carlos’ darkened eyes as they followed his motions. He had the upper hand, he thought, and he almost grinned with pride. Then he spotted a droplet of red, dripping off the popsicle and sliding down the inside of Carlos’ wrist.

Carlos noticed it at the same time, it seemed, and their eyes met before Carlos lowered his head to his wrist, licking the droplet and following its trail up to the base of his thumb with just the tip of his tongue, his eyes never leaving TK’s. TK let out a soft, shuddering sigh as he watched. Surely this was cheating, somehow.

“If you like heat, you came to the right place,” Carlos said, and TK had to blink a few times to refocus. He tore his gaze away from Carlos to look down at the melting ice cream sandwich in his hand, and smirked. 

“Oh, did I?” He ran the tip of his index finger along the bottom of the sandwich, collecting the melty bit of ice cream that had been about to drip down onto the bench between them. He brought it up to his mouth and licked, making sure Carlos got a little flash of tongue, his eyes flicking up to be sure he was watching. 

He was, with fire in his eyes. 

“Delicious,” TK said with a smug smile, popping the last bite of the sandwich into his mouth. His smile got wider as he watched Carlos hang his head and chuckle, as if tacitly admitting TK had won their little game. He liked to win.

Carlos finished the last of his popsicle, then tossed the stick into a nearby trash can. “I should probably get back to the station,” he said, standing. TK just grinned up at him, stretching out to cross his legs at the ankles.

“I guess I’ll have to enjoy the rest of my day off by myself, then.”

“Guess so.”

Still feeling flushed with victory, TK stood up, picking up his shopping bags with one hand. “Hope the rest of your shift is nice and dull.”

Carlos smiled. “Maybe sometime if our shifts line up we can do this again. Or something.”

 _Or something._ TK let out a little laugh, shaking his head a bit. The man kept catching him off guard. “Yeah, maybe so,” he said. Carlos ambled a few steps backward in the direction of the parking lot, and just before he turned away— was that a wink? 

TK sighed. Flirting was fun, but he knew allowing anything to go further than that was a bad idea. He’d just have to resist letting anything else happen if they did run into each other again. 

It shouldn’t be too hard, TK figured. After all, he could handle a little heat. 

**Author's Note:**

> Want to hang out on tumblr? I'm [unbreakablejemmasimmons](https://unbreakablejemmasimmons.tumblr.com/) over there!


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